The Good: The shelf provides a good spot to stash mittens or hats in the winter or sunglasses and other accessories in the summer. It also has six coat hooks to hang coats, bags, etc.
The Bad: Despite it being functional, it didn't really "fit" with the space. As I turn this space into something that represents “us”, the shelf was standing out as an eyesore more and more. The hooks were all hunting or fishing related: a duck, a dog, a pheasant, and a deer which, while we love the outdoors, doesn’t fit the overall look and feel of our home.
The Ugly: The shelf was originally made of a plywood material with unfinished, rough edges.
I took it upon myself to clean up the bad and the ugly and make it all good.
The first decision I had to make was whether or not to keep the existing shelf or replace it with something new. Here is a before shot of the shelf.
The mudroom is kind of a weird shape, so the corner that this shelf butts into is not a typical 90 degree angle; it’s more of a 60 degree angle. So if I was going to replace the shelf, it’d have to be something custom. The shelf was also nailed into the wall pretty extensively, so I assumed that if I were to rip it down, I’d have some damage to the walls I’d need to repair before attempting to hang a new custom shelf. All things considered, it seemed wise to keep the shelf and just give it a bit of an update.
I decided to paint the shelf the same brown color that I used on the dog food storage project. This decision was based mostly on the fact that I already had the paint, but also on the idea that it would tie the shelf and the dog food storage together and make the room a bit more cohesive. The hooks had to go because, like I mentioned, they were just not us.
I looked high and low for some simple hooks that would blend well into the room and finally found these at Urban Outfitters.
I love the turquoise color and knew it’d pop against the brown shelf. They are double hooks so they immediately doubled our hanging storage on the shelf, too! Best of all, they were on sale for $5 apiece. I ordered ‘em up and jumped up and down when they came in.
To start the re-do, I cleared everything off the shelf and removed the hooks and the support brackets. The brackets are not my favorite but I wasn’t able to find something that would easily replace them, so I think they’ll work fine for now. Once the old hooks were removed, I held up one of the new hooks and discovered that the holes were not the same distance apart. So I pre-drilled my new holes for the new hooks before painting. I didn't see a need to fill in the old holes since the new hooks would cover them anyway.
Once the holes were drilled, I sanded the shelf down a bit so the paint would stick and then cleaned everything up and prepped it for paint. I taped off the shelf and laid newspaper down on the floor to prevent a mess. I know myself well enough to know that if I’m around paint, there will probably be some sort of mess.
Once I was prepped, I put two coats of paint on the shelf and it covered really well. The unfinished edges that were once very visible are now hardly visible which makes me happy.Once the paint had dried (patience really is a virtue), I re-installed the brackets and the new hooks.
It looks so much happier and fits so much better in the space.
I changed up the accessories on the shelf a bit as well. All of the spring décor is out at JoAnn’s and Michaels and Hobby Lobby and turquoise and yellow are very popular colors. This is great because I have so many options to choose from – and not so great because I have so many options to choose from! I settled on a cute vase at Michaels that says Bloom and filled it with some turquoise and yellow blossoms. I reused some of the candles that were already there, and I added a DIY framed art piece that was sitting in my basement just waiting to be used.
This project was shared in a link party over at:
I love the new hook colors of the shelf. It makes the hook pop and the added accessories you got there looks really calming. Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by! I love the turquoise color too. It adds a bit of fun to the space.
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